Alex Wagner Tonight Kicks off First Show with Apparent Teleprompter Malfunction
The first episode of MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight began with a heartfelt handoff from Chris Hayes, but the show was briefly derailed thanks to what appeared to be a teleprompter issue.
Alex Wagner, who was named Rachel Maddow’s permanent replacement for the 9 p.m. time slot Tuesday through Friday, handled the technical difficulty well.
During the handoff, Wagner noted she and Hayes have known each other for 25 years.
“You’re a dear and long-term friend of mine,” Hayes said. “I can’t think of anyone better to do this than you. And I can’t think of anyone better prepared to do it. The first day that I had to show I was a nervous wreck and I was barely breathing in my BPM was probably 145 a minute, but you are a cool customer.”
Hayes had no idea how cool she was about to be.
“You say that and I’m gonna pass out in like one minute,” she replied.
Wagner kicked off her show, telling viewers, “I am thrilled to be here and honored to have this hour every night Tuesday through Friday’s to spend with you. Like most of you watching right now, I’ve been a longtime viewer of the The Rachel Maddow Show and I hope to live up to the incredibly high standard and she has set in covering the stories of the day and bring in context to this moment that we’re living through together.”
Then the trouble began.
“So with that, let’s get started,” she continued. “Tonight, the FBI warrant to search Mar-a-Lago is unsealed. The three potential crimes laid out in that document. We’ll dive into what it means and what could happen [PAUSE] with one of the Wall Street journal reporters who was first to report on the contents of that warrant.”
After another awkward pause, Wagner resumed speaking, but the expression on her face suggested a problem.
“Then we’ll–” she said, before pausing, extending her hands outward as if to be calling for help. “Then we’ll–” she said, pausing again before cutting bait on her intro.
“We are actually going to go right to the top story tonight,” she said, “in Wyoming where polls have just closed as Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney faces the steepness of climbs and longest of odds to hold onto her seat.”
(Cheney ultimately lost her primary on Tuesday and will lose her seat at the end of the term, though Wagner may be poised to keep hers for some time.)
Wagner addressed the malfunction later in the A block.
“And one note before we go to break,” she said. “Yes, we sure did have a case of the technical gremlins at the top of the show, but this is the first one so we’ll work it out. Now I think we’ve gotten it all under control. We hope the rest of the night will be smooth sailing America, but this is live TV and it has its charms. We’ll be back.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
